Sunday, June 26, 2011

Well it's Monday and I've got the day to myself again as my lovely wife looks after the little man =)

I've been busy and put together my second grey hunter plasma squad. It was pretty straightforward with only a few tweaks to arms and one conversion using the horn from the terminator sprue.

So here is Hrun Hornblower, when enemies hear his horn they tremble in fear!

And here's the second squad, if you'll recall they are the defensive squad, tasked with taking objectives. I've stuck with my plan of giving the pointy helmets to the heavy weapons users and tried to make it so that all the guns were different. There is one copy gun, but I'll swap that with one of the guys in the other plasma squad =) Seeing as how I haven't painted their pack markings nobody will ever know!

Here they are rotated ninety degrees. I've started to hit the end of all the bits and pieces so you'll see some ordinary marine legs, torsos and shoulder pads in the squad. After I've done all the sandy bases I'll put the two divisions out on a board so you can see the whole army. Still have the scouts to go, but lacking enthusiasm for them at the moment.

My brother got a good e-bay Space Hulk without the miniatures and he has some small tyranids. I didn't realise that the terminator bases wouldn't fit the board game, but it doesn't matter so much as we'll just proxy normal space marines instead.

We'll use terminators for the sergeants, I've got one with a sword and storm bolter and another with hammer and shield (as you've seen previously).

So instead of terminators with storm bolters and power fists we'll just use my Grey Hunters with boltgun and close combat weapon.

Instead of the terminator and chainfist we'll use a Grey Hunter with a chainsword.

Instead of a terminator with heavy flamer we'll use a Long Fang with a plasma cannon.

Instead of the terminator with dual claws we'll use a Wolf Guard in Power Armour with dual claws (made him yesterday). He probably won't ever be part of my army, but you never know I guess!

Instead of the terminator with assault cannon we'll use a Long Fang with a heavy bolter (also made yesterday).

You may have seen some heads that you don't recognise from the space wolf sprue, I didn't like all of the super spiked up hair, but I don't mind the braids sometimes. So I took off some of the top knots and filed the head as flat as I could.

Anyway, that's where I'm up to, might sit back, watch some old X-files and glue some sand to some bases now.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Well I had a few hours, yes, that's right, HOURS off today as my lovely wife took the baby boy out for a while. So I decided to do a bit of mucking around as well as finishing off the two long fangs squads. Also a guy wielding a missile launcher like a baseball bat =) I had to do an Imperial Guard missile launcher conversion of sorts to work with my space wolf long fangs.

Here are the results. I give you the Wolf's Breath Long Fang squad, dealing massive AoE damage with two plasma cannons and two missile launchers. The templates will hammer all enemies! To make sure they looked like space wolves and not just devastators I've used bits from a normal space wolf box and a spear from some really old fantasy, I think skeletons. They also all have bare heads for a more wolfy feel.

And here's the Fang of the Wolf, heavy hitting piercing damage through two lascannons and two missile launchers. Here's where I had a bit of fun. Given that I didn't have enough space marine missile launchers, my brother let me have some of his Imperial Guard ones as compensation for gluing together a squad for him. To bulk them up a bit (and enjoy myself) I did some cutting and reposing for some wolfy action. One of them is reloading or something, the other has just wielded his launcher like a baseball bat to kill some local wildlife. The backpacks on them, I think, are meant for the sergeant to use, but I couldn't have just two guys with ordinary packs when all the other Long Fangs had special ones =)

Vjork took quite a bit of work, and I'm looking forward to painting him up. Firstly I had to find some arms that were roughly in the right poses. I actually stood up myself holding a vacuum cleaner pole to get the pose right, as though he's just returning from a big swing down by swinging back up. The hands had to be cut at both wrists.

The right hand was cut and filed down to make a groove for the missile launcher to slot into, there's a nice flat rectangular bit that worked well. Another one of the big open hands was the right size to grip the bottom of the missile launcher. After that it was just a lot of fiddly repositioning with some greenstuff to help get the arms in the right position.

Slightly different angle here, I found that it was easiest to get the greenstuff stuck in a fairly big blob, then glue the hands on and wait for the glue to partially set. Then I could reposition things by swivelling and moving just slightly and the glue was set enough to keep it together, but not so set that it wouldn't move around some.

Here you can see a bit more of the hand that had the most work done to it. I cut a thumb off and reglued it back on in a better position (originally it was bent down into the fist). A bit of paint and you'll never know =)

Vjork Verminslayer has a somewhat psychotic hatred of creepy-crawlies. His pack leader recently gave him a big dressing down after he launched a frag missile at a Fenrisian spider nest, narrowly avoiding killing some nearby Blood Wolves. On their current mission a massive rat-like beast skittered across the field of battle right in front of Vjork. With his sergeant's condemnations still ringing in his ears he chose not to waste a missile, but still took care of the rat-beast in an efficient manner.

The rat is a giant rat I got cheap on eBay (well, a whole pile of them) that I planned on using for my LotR army at some stage. I'm not sure if it's visible really in any of the shots (actually, in the one a couple up from this one it is) but I also indented near the top of the missile launcher by filing away a bit then putting some plastic glue on it. Once the plastic glue had sat there for about half a minute I scraped it away, leaving a slightly misshapen, but roughly semi-circular indentation on the barrel for where it has impacted the poor rat-thing. When painted I'll leave that bit metallic, as though the paint was stripped and put a matching colour paint in a similar shape on the head of the rat-thing to show where it was hit.

Anyway, being completely new to 40k I don't know whether this sort of tom-foolery is allowed, but I had a blast doing it and now have my two long fangs squads!

Next on my list are the remaining few Grey Hunters and then after that the scouts (though I'm not rushing to get them done).

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I put together my first group of Long Fangs this week and I've gotta say, it was a real blast (pun intended).

Those models are FUN to put together! Such whopping big guns!

The parts all dovetail together nicely and although you're a little limited in poses due to the MASSIVE guns, I really just enjoyed building them!

I added some Space Wolfiness to them in legs, heads and shoulderpads. As these guys are seniors and have long histories behind them, they are bare-headed.

So here they are...

The plasma cannons are so cool, I love the wires and everything. There are seven small wires that go into one big cable that then emerge as seven small wires again. Hopefully I'll have a go at painting them each a different colour or something (though when that'll be - who can say!) I gave the plasma guys mohawks, they live dangerously as their guns could kill them at any time, so they're a bit rebellious and rambunctious fellows!

The sergeant I glued a big scope to the side of his bolt pistol so that he can better work out where to direct their fire. Some of the heads needed a bit of sprue on the bottom of them to bump them into a better position. The lascannon and missile launcher in particular I tried to make it so the guys were looking down the scopes.

I also love the massive chunky backpacks. What's not to love about these models!?

I still have five more to go, another sergeant, another three missile launchers and another lascannon. And that's all I have time for today, baby is calling =)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Over the last few days I've been gluing away a little at a time until the last shoulderpad went on a few minutes ago.

I'll still put a bit of work into putting on some purity seals and miscellaneous bits to cover any gaps.

I'm most impressed with the new guys because they were almost as-is with only a tiny bit of greenstuff on the leader and the cyclone missile launcher. I'm amazed at how clever the design is to allow so many bits and pieces to be mixed and matched to create such a variety of models with what you get in the box.

The pictures were taken with an excessive white balance to try and show detail on unpainted models, so excuse the washing out, but otherwise they're just black and grey blobs =)

Here's Mr. Assault Cannon.

And Mr. Storm Bolter and Power Fist.

With his friend Mr. Storm Bolter and Wolf Claw.

Mr. Cyclone Missile Launcher.

Mr. Storm Bolter and Thunder Hammer. I had some fun with this guy, the bolter was on a bit of a tilt, so I tilted his head as well. Kinda reminds me of my dog =)

Mr. Storm Bolter and Power Sword, or Frost Blade, not sure what I'll go with. If I can paint a good frost sword I'll do that.

Mr. Chainfist and Shield (Lone Wolf). I was thinking today of some back story for him. He was one of the Wolf Guard of Skodi's (the Wolf Lord) predecessor. His Lord and the other guard were killed and now he's out for revenge, not resting until he's avenged each one (hence the special Lone Wolf rules). I'll be putting a parchment/bannery type thing on his back with the names of his ex-pack and a cross or skull next to each name that he's avenged.

And Skodi the Wolf Lord. You can see that I've done a tiny bit of work on his cape, still not sure what colour to make it.

Mr. Mountain Climber. Thunder Hammer and Shield. I'm still happy with this pose, I really like it =)

Lastly my other leader, the Wolf Guard Battle Leader with the twin axes. Cyclone missile aside (which really was hardly any work) this was the only guy in the box I did any significant work on. The right hand axe is an axe head on a thunder hammer haft, you can clearly see the colour change =) There is a severe shortage of workable right hands in the terminator box, except for the sword (which I'd already used) so I had to use a marine one instead. It's not quite right if you look closely, but that will be easily fixed with a dangly wolf tail or something. The small shield thing on his right shoulder covers the only greenstuffing I really had to do to get the arm bent so far out.

Hopefully he looks menacing =)

Now I just need names and sagas for them all =) Oh, and a bazillion hours of painting time. Next up, though, I'll be putting together my other minis, devastators (Long Fangs), Grey Hunters and Scouts. Can't paint for a while, the weather has been waaaaaay too cold to use spray paint!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Well, have been on a little holiday, so sorry about the absence of recent posts.On the plus side I got my next (and last) delivery of miniatures!

Last because GW have decided to try and force us to continue paying exorbitant prices for our miniatures (about 200% of overseas costs) by restricting sales to Australia from overseas.

I'm sure some eBay shenanigans will ensue, but in the meantime I'm all set anyway.

On the negative, my brother needs to save up for a new computer, so his army will be stalled for a while =(

Still, now I have an army list that I will share for your amusement. Why amusement? Because it's to look nice put together and to enjoy painting etc. rather than for any actual combat effectiveness.

I know I haven't done the backstory I keep promising, but suffice it to say that these guys are expert subterranean fighters and hence don't use tanks and heavy vehicles. They will use drop pods to get to the right places on a planet to head underground.

"Extra" wolf guard with combi-plasma and thunder hammer (for bringing squads up to number if needed).

Scouts, 5 with a Wolf Guard Pack Leader in power armour, combi-melta and thunder hammer. Scouts have a Melta, Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol and mark of the wulfen.

Roughly 2200 points all up, depending on extras like sagas and meltabombs etc.

The first Division is 905 points, second is 765.

From this I can mix and match squads and elites to field all sorts of different armies.

Have started putting together the next five terminators (how could I refuse!)

I didn't have a cyclone missile launcher, but had a leftover missile launcher from the drop pod, so with a bit of greenstuff I'll save myself some more money...

Here's the Wolf Guard Battle Leader. I wanted him striding purposefully forward with axes slightly wide, kinda like the Dwarf Champion from LotR SBG. I had to do some cutting and pasting of axe bits to get it to work and will need to greenstuff some bits where the arms attach to get the pose right, as you can see by the blu-tac.

Here's a powerfist and storm bolter guy. I want to keep each wolf guard unique, so they've all got a different weapon load-out. This is sort of the traditional terminator look.

Here is the power sword guy, raised as though ready to strike down and the thunder hammer guy in just a sort of interesting pose, at least I thought so. I've also tried to keep all of them fairly open, not covering their chests and looking as though they're really not caring about any laser shots or boltgun shells pinging from their armour as they stride forward or launch their attacks.

And here's the cyclone missile launcher guy. I'll take a side on shot later, but basically I've got him so that he looks quite dynamic from the front, from the side you can see that his body leans forward, with the missile pod to the rear in such a way that the center of gravity is still above his feet. Like he's leaning forward under the weight of the missiles a bit.

Oh, and the three terminators accompanying the new leader have termie helmets, the other four are bare-headed. Just another way to distinguish them a little. I figured the missile launcher guy needed the face protection for the exhaust! Also that these terminators are slightly less senior ranked than the ones accompanying the Wolf Lord. Or something.

A wedge of greenstuff under the missile pod, when painted, will hopefully not look too out of place.

Back view. I plan on adding purity seals or wolf tails or something to cover up any joining mishaps.

Anyway, there you go, a bit of kit bashing to make a cyclone missile launcher from bits I had lying around!

As always, progress will depend on the sleeping habits of a four and a half month old (which is mainly very little sleep still).